In a policy document published by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) earlier this week, the tax authority has requested new powers to be able to access taxpayers’ bank accounts without requesting permission beforehand. The ‘shocking’ request, which comes as part of new plans to crack down more aggressively on tax evasion, has caused a media storm, with some criticising the… read more →

Earlier this month, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) put out a press release warning taxpayers to watch out for fraudulent websites posing as genuine HMRC resources. According to HMRC’s own research, a ‘record’ 20,750 malicious sites have been taken down in the past 12 months alone – 29 per cent more than the number of ‘fake’ HMRC websites that had… read more →

New research reveals that there has been a steep rise in the number of women acting as self-employed contractors and freelancers in the UK’s IT sector. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of female IT contractors operating in the UK rose by a quarter (25 per cent) last year, soaring from 16,568 to 20,648.… read more →

An age-old London underground station used by hundreds of people each day received a highly unusual ‘rebrand’ earlier this month in honour of a new-found football hero. Southgate station in North London was renamed ‘Gareth Southgate’ for 48 hours between Monday 16 and Wednesday 18 July, in honour of the great success the England team enjoyed at this year’s World… read more →

There are some changes to data protection law, so we wanted you to know that we’ve updated our Privacy Policy. Your trust is important to us and we want to make sure you understand what these changes mean for you. So, if you’d like to find out more, take a look at our Privacy Policy or visit our website at any time.… read more →

A previously-overlooked Tribunal decision involving a company that successfully challenged the IR35 status of a number of it’s contracts once again demonstrates that HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) ‘narrow’ classification procedures are not always right when it comes to the intricacies of IR35 and Mutuality of Obligation (MOO). The case of Armitage Technical Design Services Ltd (ATDSL) v HMRC first drew to… read more →

As an extension of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) controversial new off-payroll rules into the private sector begins to look increasingly likely, a number of contracting bodies have spoken out against the proposed reforms. Under existing proposals, HMRC intends to extend the new IR35 rules to the private sector in order to make businesses responsible for assessing the status of… read more →

The desire to work flexibly is increasingly taking workers out of the office to become their own boss, a new study has revealed. Instant Offices, which published the report, said the freelance sector is growing year-after-year, thanks to major changes in the ways Britons like to work. The latest figures show that some 4.8 million Brits now classify themselves as… read more →

The World Cup is now finally upon us, after the first match between Russia and Saudi Arabia officially kicked-off on Thursday 14 June. Britain is a nation of football-lovers, so it makes complete sense that it’s people will want to enjoy the World Cup as much as they can. This is particularly true this time around, with the England team… read more →

As the old saying goes, unseasoned travellers often feel inclined to take absolutely everything with them on holiday, ‘even the kitchen sink’. But when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped off the plane in Singapore to meet US President Donald Trump earlier this month, he had a very different household item in tow. According to Sky News, the North Korean… read more →